DEVIN TOWNSEND — Physicist (review)

DEVIN TOWNSEND — Physicist album cover Album · 2000 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
arcane-beautiful
Another history lesson, and more facts of information. During the late 90's, Devin had started to take his musical experiments even further, by getting in contact with Jason Newsted from Metallica. The 2 jammed and where about to release an album under the name of IR8. But, if anyone knows the history of Metallica, apparently James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich where not big fans of their bass player going off and starting side projects.

So, having a load of material and no band, Devin decided to give his friends in Strapping Young Lad a call and have them as his backing band for this album. Which makes me ask the question...

Why wasn't this a Strapping Young Lad album!

Ok, I know this wouldn't have went well with the Strapping fans, but I have to admit, this album isn't too far from what the band would have been doing a few years later on their self titled album. Musically at times there are a lot of harkenings to the sounds created on Devin's previous 2 albums, but other than that, at least more than half of this album would have been perfect material for the band, and also, the line up for this album is al the guys from Strapping anyway, so it really wouldn't have been too much of a dramatic change.

The album opener “Namaste” is a brilliant opener. With a lot of power and some absolutely insane vocals from Devin, it starts the album off on a positive but rather insane note.

“Victim” has to be one of the heaviest songs on the album. In fact, the riff in the song is very similar to the riff in “Detox.” An absolute heavy and bone crushing song.

The early version of “Kingdom” is alright, but I have to admit, the “Epicloud” version of this song completely shadows it. I do like the instrumentation in this one, making the music have a very thunderous approach.

“Death” is probably the most insane song on the album. With music that almost touches on almost grindcore moments, Devin babbles like a basket case.

One of my personal favourites has to be “Irish Maiden” (mainly because I'm Irish). The rather folky and relaxing nature of the song adds well with the insane heaviness of the rhythm section behind it.

The album closer “Planet Rain” is the real epic on the album. A pretty simple enough idea, but as it builds up throughout, it does reach a brilliant and rather epic climax. A bit of an underrated Devin song if I'm being honest.

In conclusion, everyone's going to have a mixed opinion about this album. Personally I rather like it, but I would admit in saying that this is one of Devin's weakest albums. I would prefer if this was a Strapping Young Lad album or if the IR8 project with Jason Newsted, but it is what it is, and I rather enjoyed it. I wouldn't recommend this to every fan or prog fan, but metal fans might get a kick out of this album, cause it is pretty nuts.

7.7/10
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Deviance Deathcore
ASHES INTO BLOOD
Buy this album from MMA partners
Equilibrium Atmospheric Sludge Metal
BESRA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tension Between Rot And Genesis Sludge Metal
ANTHESIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Recycle Brain Crust Punk
C.P.G
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cartography Of The Mind Deathcore
TETHERED
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Besra – Unsullied (Music Video)
BESRA
Bosh66· 10 hours ago
Tethered - Breathe (Official Video)
TETHERED
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Saltwound - Walking The Blade (OFFICIAL VISUALIZER)
SALTWOUND
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Saltwound - The Negative (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
SALTWOUND
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Saltwound - Drowning feat. Taylor Barber (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
SALTWOUND
Bosh66· 1 day ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed